[…]Schools in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu are to be instructed not to stage events with “risky” stunts, an official told the BBC. The move follows an event in which a martial arts trainer drove a motorcycle over the hands of students. The show, at a school in Villupuram, was stopped after protests from the relative of a government minister. Authorities said parents of students had pressured the school into staging the event. The head of Tamil Nadu’s elementary school department, K Devarajan, told the BBC that all 50,000 schools in the state would be told not to hold events which involve “risky stunts and practices”.[…]

[…](CNN) — At least 230 people were killed and 190 injured when an oil tanker flipped over and exploded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a government spokesman said Saturday. While the spokesman, Mende Omalanga, said five of the dead were United Nations peacekeepers, an official with the U.N. mission in the capital of Kinshasa contradicted the report. “No U.N. members were killed” in the explosion, said Madnodje Mounoubai. The tanker flipped over Friday afternoon, said Omalanga, the country’s minister of communications. It was attempting to overtake a bus in Sange, in South Kivu province, on the country’s eastern border. When oil began to spill from the overturned tanker, local residents attempted to collect the oil. One was smoking a cigarette, causing the tanker to explode, Omalanga said. The largest group of victims had been sitting in a bar near the accident site watching the World Cup match between the Netherlands and Brazil, he said. Some of the injured were being treated locally in surrounding villages, but most were sent to the nearby town of Uvira, Omalanga said. The tanker is owned by a company called GINKI, and the driver managed to escape the fire, the U.N. mission said.[…]

[…]Only six people were previously believed to have died when security forces opened fire to quell rioting on Monday in the Muslim-majority region adjoining the border with Malaysia. The huge new toll, and the manner of the deaths, are bound to add to tensions and highlight methods to quell a 10-month rebellion that has claimed 400 lives. In a comment likely to inflame Muslims, Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister, blamed the Ramadan fast for weakening those who died. A Muslim leader predicted that “hell will break out”. The men died after protesters in Tak Bai demanded the release of six village defence volunteers, arrested on suspicion of giving their weapons to militants. Protesters allegedly threatened to storm a police station, and police and soldiers broke up the demonstration, killing six and arresting 1,300. “After we brought people who were arrested into detention, we found that another 78 people were dead,” said Manit Suthaporn, a justice ministry official. “According to the investigation, they died because of suffocation.” Pornthip Rojanasunan, chief forensic expert at the justice ministry, said the men could have been gagged to death. “It wasn’t a case of not enough air to breathe, but they might have had something stuffed in their mouths or nostrils,” she said. “Two or three had broken necks.” About 50 Muslims gathered at the Inkayut army compound, begging for news of relatives. “I don’t know if my husband’s alive or not,” wept Piwarat Arwae, 38. “He took our two children to school and must have dropped by at the protest on the way back. He never came home.”[…]

[…]The families of the hostages had set up a sit-down in Zarangar Park, Kabul. Local authorities in Zabul province in southern Afghanistan announced that last week, forces affiliated with the so-called Islamic State (ISIL) group killed seven hostage-taking civilians killed in the Hazara people. Ghulam Jilani Farahi, Zabul Provincial Security Officer, told BBC News that hostages were flown by Uzbek fighters last night after the clashes began between ISIL forces and the Taliban group. Mr Farahi also says seven people have been killed, including three women and four men mercilessly murdered. Local sources have been involved with Taliban Taliban leader Mullah Mansur in the province with Mullah Dadullah forces affiliated with Mullah Mohammad Rassoul, the head of the Taliban’s branch branch, yesterday’s sources said Saturday (October 16th).[…]

[…]A Tibetan exile has set himself on fire at a demonstration in central Delhi, a day before a visit to India by the Chinese president. Jamphel Yeshi, a 27-year-old Delhi resident, doused himself with petrol during a protest at the Jantar Mantar observatory, a few hundred yards from India’s parliament. He was engulfed in flames before fellow activists put out the blaze with Tibetan flags and rushed him to hospital. Officials said he had suffered burns to 90% of his body and was unlikely to survive. More than 500 demonstrators marched across the city to protest against the visit by Hu Jintao, who will arrive on Tuesday for a two-day summit of emerging powers.[…]

[…]Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A bomb blast in a restaurant in Myawaddy Township killed two people and injured two others at about 5 p.m. on Wednesday on the Burmese side of the border with Thailand, witnesses said. Myawaddy is across the Moei River from Mae Sot, Thailand. The Friendship Bridge, in the background, connects Thailand and Burma. Many Burmese migrant workers cross the river on truck tire inner tubes. The bomb exploded in the 7 Star Restaurant next to the Shwe Tadar Guest House near the Friendship Bridge, killing a girl in her teens and a boy, sources said. ‘It was a time bomb in a parcel. The parcel was put in the restaurant’, said a witness. Two adults were seriously injured and taken to the Myawaddy Hospital, sources said. Their condition is not known.[…]